Encouraging Diamond Indicator Chemistry reported from the Arbutus Kimberlite Discovery, Diagras Project, NT

2022-10-03 / @thenewswire

(TheNewswire)

A total of 3kg of Arbutus kimberlite was processed at CF Minerals of Kelowna and interpreted by Dr. Chuck Fipke
He reports that Arbutus Kimberlite should have excellent diamond potential with some of the best chemistries he has seen, with abundant indicators in a relatively small sample.
Dr. Chuck Fipke, created the Canadian diamond industry when his work led to the discovery of the Ekati diamond mine in the Lac de Grad kimberlite field.
The lab has a large global database of minerals that are inclusions in diamonds. These have unique chemistries. Many of the indicators from Arbutus exhibited similar chemistry.

October 3, 2022 - VANCOUVER, BC - TheNewswire - Margaret Lake Diamonds Inc. ("MLD" or the "Company") (TSXV:DIA) (FKT:M85A) (OTC:DDIAF) is pleased to announce diamond indicator mineral "DIMS" analysis and classification has been completed by C.F. Mineral Research Ltd, on core sample from the Arbutus Kimberlite discovery, of the Diagras project NT. The Diagras project is a joint venture between Arctic Star Exploration Corp. ( 81.5%) and Margaret Lake Diamonds Inc. ( 18.5%).

Mr. Patrick Power, President of Arctic Star, commented, "Indicator minerals are an important adjunct, when first encountering a new kimberlite discovery. Dr. Fipke's results and interpretation are telling us that:

That the kimberlite is multi-phase, with one of the phases having superior chemistry to the others
The chemistry is some of the best Dr. Fipke has seen when compared to his global database of diamond inclusions, the results here have a higher percentage and are more abundant by weight of samples that he has encountered previously.
The chemistry is also permissive for large diamonds.

We provide the full report from Dr Fipke below:

Three small core samples of kimberlite weighing 0.97, 0.81 and 1.22 kilograms were submitted by Arctic Star Exploration to C.F. Mineral Research Ltd. for extraction, microprobing and classifying of any contained diamond indicator minerals.

According to Arctic Star the three pieces originated from various parts of the Arbutus kimberlite in which 143.05 kilograms of kimberlite from two drill holes contained 61diamonds.

A summary sheet of the diamond indicators recovered, microprobed and classified is given as Table 1. An asterisk "*" present in a column type/header [G10* pyropes, Di*G9/11 pyropes, Di$* clinopyroxenes (Cr diopsides), Di* chromites, G1* eclogitic garnets, and Di* olivines] means that the indicator minerals recovered match the compositions of indicator minerals included in diamond, intergrown with diamond or are from diamond bearing xenoliths. About 11,000 of such diamond inclusion indicators from worldwide sources are present in the C.F. Mineral Research database. The type and numbers of kimberlite indicators in Table 1 suggest that all three samples may originate from differing kimberlite phases in the same kimberlite.

Sample DG-2022-08 weighing 970 gms contained only a single G10* pyrope and a single G1* eclogitic garnet. However the sample contained 92 Di* chromites and 36 Di* olivines. Moreover, the sample contained a Di$* clinopyroxene and five Di* G9/11 pyrope garnets that are sourced from Lherzolite which are known to contain small quantities of very large diamonds. Such Lherzolite minerals are included in diamonds greater than 52 carats from the Ekati Diamond Mine, Canada and are present at the Premier Mine, South Africa, the Lacara Mine, South Africa and the Letzing Mine, Lesotho. The last mine is known to contain huge diamonds with no or rare small diamonds.

Sample DG-2022-09B, weighing 810 gms also only contained a single G10* pyrope garnet and no Di*G9/11 pyrope garnets but contained 68 Di* chromites, 41 Di* olivines and 67 G1* ecologitic garnets. Thus, this sample is dominated by G1* ecologitic garnets from a diamond bearing ecologite source but also contains 3 Di$* clinopyroxenes from a Lherzolite source described above.

Sample DG-2022-09A weighing 1220 gms contained 73 G10* pyropes, 110 Di* chromites, 44 Di* olivines, 32 G1* ecologitic garnets. In addition the sample contained two Di* G9/11 pyropes and a single Di$* clinopyroxene. Thus these indicator minerals were sourced from diamond bearing pyrope and chromite sources as well as a diamond bearing ecologite source as well as from a Lherzolite source of large diamonds.

C.F. Mineral have never previously encountered such a rich source of G10-10* and G10-9* composition pyropes along with significant diamond inclusion minerals from diamond bearing chromite, Group 1 ecologite and Lhzerolite sources of diamond. According to the late Dr. John Gurney, Head of the Department of Geochemistry, South Africa, G10-10* and G10-9* composition pyropes are associated with the highest of diamond grades. We would expect the kimberlite phase of DG-2022-09A to be loaded with diamonds and additionally contain some very large diamonds.

Unfortunately only four picroilmenites were recovered from all three samples submitted. Picroilmenites do not actually form with diamond but form from the kimberlite magma itself. When 40 to 50 picroilmenites are present it is possible to predict whether or not the kimberlite magma may have oxidized diamonds thus destroying small diamonds but leaving large diamonds only partially oxidized. Of course diamonds encapsulated in xenoliths would be insulated against an oxidizing kimberlite magma thus be recovered unoxidized.

If more of the DG-2022-09A phase is present we would expect correspondingly high diamond grades. All three samples contain Lherzolite sources of diamond in which large diamonds are expected with or without small diamonds. Overall, the DG-2022-09A phase Di* indicator results are the best C.F. Mineral have ever encountered.

Note: Dr. Fipke personally owns Arctic Star shares.

Mr. Buddy Doyle, VP Exploration for Arctic Star, also commented. "Our general exporation strategy is to locate new kimberlite discoveries. If the results of this work is encouraging we return to the kiberlite and drill more to define its size and get a larger diamond samples. The Arbutus kimberlite discovery has proven to be diamond bearing, with relatively larger stones from a small sample. (see news release dated September 14/22 ). This along with the excellent diamond chemistry reported here, demonstrates that this kimberlite deserves further attention. Also notable, is that Arbutus lies to the south of the Finlay kimberlite. A historic kimberlite, discovered in the 1990's, however, the previous workers never made the diamond content public. We therefore also plan to test this kimberlite in the 2023 exploration program."

Qualified Person

The Qualified Person for this news release is Buddy Doyle, AUSIMM, a Geologist with over 35 years of experience in diamond exploration, discovery, and evaluation. A Qualified Person under the provisions of the National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Doyle has relied on the Technical expertise of Dr. Fipke for portions of this news release.

The Diagras project is a joint venture between Arctic Star Exploration Corp. (currently 81.5%) and Margaret Lake Diamonds Inc. (currently 18.5%).

On behalf of the Board

Margaret Lake Diamonds Inc.

"Yari Nieken"

President, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman Tel: 604.328.0425 | Email: ynieke n@gmail.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

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